Emissions Inventories and Projections

For action to be taken to tackle climate change, individual countries need to estimate how much emissions they emit and how much they are likely to emit in the future.

The EPA compiles Ireland's annual greenhouse gas emission inventories and projections. This allows the Government to assess progress in terms of meeting key targets, such as the Kyoto Protocol limitation target, and to inform policy development in terms of developing appropriate mitigation measures.

A greenhouse gas emission inventory is a compilation of historical greenhouse gas emissions from sources, such as transport, power generation, industry and agriculture, from 1990 to the most recent year for which data is available.

A greenhouse gas emission projection is an estimate of what emission levels are likely to be in the future based key assumptions such as economic growth, fuel price and Government policy.

Essentially the inventory data provides a summary of past emissions whereas the projections attempt to estimate the emissions in the future.